One couple's quest to eat their way through every Best Picture winner

Tag Archives: Academy Award

We know its been a while since we posted anything but we couldn’t let the Oscars pass us by without putting up our picks for this year. Once again, we have seen a very large chunk of the nominated films including all of the films and performances in every major category. Below you will find our Oscar picks. For the bigger categories, we decided to pick the films that we want to win (From the Heart) and also the films we think The Academy is likely to choose (From the Head). We only included the categories that we have seen or have extensive knowledge in. Feel free to leave your own picks below!

Kristy’s Picks

Best Picture

From the Heart: “Birdman” – This movie has great acting, a great script, a fantastic score, and an intriguing focus on the psychological struggles of the acting world. The more I think about this film, the more I appreciate and enjoy it.

From the Head: “Boyhood” – I truly admire the dedication that Linklater and his actors gave to this film, however, the one area that I feel this film falls flat is in its story. For that reason alone, I am hoping that “Birdman” wins, however, I would not be at all surprised if the Academy awards Linklater for his incredible efforts.

Best Actor

From the Heart: Michael Keaton in “Birdman” – While this is an incredibly strong category this year, Michael Keaton outperformed everyone.

From the Head: There’s a chance that Eddie Redmayne could be rewarded for his transformation in “The Theory of Everything” but I still think the Academy will give Michael Keaton his moment.

Best Actress

From the Heart: My two favorites in this category were the emotional performances by both Marion Cotillard in “Two Days One Night” and Julianne Moore in “Still Alice”. I would be happy if either of these two women were given the award.

From the Head: Julianne Moore is the likely favorite which would be well deserved considering this is her most emotionally compelling performance to date.

Best Supporting Actor

From the Heart: The transformation that J. K. Simmons gives in Whiplash should absolutely be rewarded. Despite the fact that little is known about the character’s background in the film, Simmons creates a depth of emotion with a character that could have been simply played as a manipulative jerk of a music teacher. Instead Simmons was able to capture the many facets of the obsession for perfection.

From the Head: I think that J.K. Simmons will take this one.

Best Supporting Actress

From the Heart: First off, I love Meryl Streep but what the heck is she doing in this category this year? The true star in this category is Patricia Arquette in “Boyhood”. For me she was the most enjoyable part of the film.

From the Head: I think Patricia Arquette will be rewarded for her years of dedication to this character.

Best Director

From the Heart: While I chose “Birdman” as my favorite for Best Picture, I absolutely think that Linklater should be rewarded for his years of work on “Boyhood”. He achieved a feat that many other directors would not even consider attempting.

From the Head: I think it comes down to Inarritu and Linklater and it’s honestly difficult for me to determine who’s going to take this one.

Other Category Choices:

Best Original Screenplay

“Birdman” for its fluid and artistic storyline.

Best Adapted Screenplay

“The Imitation Game” for bringing the story of Alan Turing to the public eye.

Best Original Score

“The Imitation Game” because of its traditional Oscar score.

Best Original Song

“Selma” largely because I would like to see Common and John Legend accept this award as I’m a fan of both of them.

Best Editing

“Boyhood” – I honestly cannot comprehend how much footage Sandra Adair had to sift through in order to weave together a cohesive storyline and she should be rewarded for her sheer dedication.

“The Grand Budapest Hotel” – Going hand in hand with the design, the costumes of this movie were stunning.

Best Makeup

“Guardians of the Galaxy”

Best Sound Editing

“Birdman”

Best Sound Mixing

“Whiplash”

Best Visual Effects

“Interstellar”

Best Live-Action Short

“Boogaloo and Graham”. Those darn chickens!

Koob’s Picks

Best Picture

From the Heart: “Boyhood” – While this film was groundbreaking by the fact that it was filmed over the course of 12 years, I feel like it goes way beyond just being a gimmick. Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke were both great and Ellar Coltrane more than held his own and was definitely a surprise. I remember walking out of the theater and just being blown away by this movie so I’m sticking with that as no other film gave me that feeling this year.

From the Head: “Boyhood” – It seems like it is neck and neck between “Boyhood” and “Birdman” this year and they were both great but I think the Academy will give the slight edge to “Boyhood”.

Best Actor

From the Heart: Michael Keaton in “Birdman” – This was a great performance by a very well liked actor in a very original film. It’s not just rewarding him for a long career. I think he deserves it.

From the Head: Michael Keaton – Eddie Redmayne was great as Stephen Hawking and this should be another close one but the Academy loves to reward people who have been around for a while and never got their due so I think Keaton will come out on top.

Best Actress

From the Heart: Reese Witherspoon in “Wild” – Julianne Moore was great in “Still Alice” and she’s had a great career so it’s probably her time, but of the five performances Reese’s was the one that moved me the most.

From the Head: Julianne Moore in “Still Alice” – this is a virtual lock. A well-deserved win for a phenomenal actress who has been a bridesmaid several times before and should now get her due.

Best Supporting Actor

From the Heart: J.K. Simmons in “Whiplash” – Always a tough category as Hawke, Norton, and Ruffalo were all great (not sure why Duvall is even here) but Simmons’ performance was pitch perfect and will be remembered for a long time.

From the Head: This is the year of J.K. Simmons. He has pretty much won every award and I don’t think the Oscars will be any different.

Best Supporting Actress

From the Heart: I really liked Laura Dern in “Wild” but I will give the slight edge to Patricia Arquette as a mother who went through some tough relationships but was always there for her kids.

From the Head: Once again, my pick matches up with what I think the Academy will do; Patricia Arquette for the win!

Best Director

From the Heart: This one is probably the toughest for me as “Birdman” was really cool and innovative and “Boyhood” was groundbreaking. I have to give the edge to Linklater for carrying the project through for twelve years and never losing sight of his ultimate vision.

From the Head: Another very close race but I think Linklater edges out Inarritu.

Other Category Choices

Best Original Screenplay

I think “Birdman” will win here and deservedly so as it was very original.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Not really sure how this one will go down. I thought Inherent Vice was pretty cool but I think maybe this will be one of the few wins for “The Imitation Game”.

Best Original Score

I didn’t see “Interstellar” or “Mr. Turner”, but I think “The Theory of Everything” will take this one.

Best Original Song

Seems to be a battle between “The Lego Movie” and “Selma”. I’m going with John Legend and Common from “Selma” in this one.

Best Editing

I would be shocked if “Boyhood” didn’t win this as they put together footage filmed over the course of twelve years and blended it seamlessly together.

Best Cinematography

I’ve only seen “Birdman” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” in this category but I think they would have to be the two frontrunners. I’ll give the slight edge to “Birdman”.

Best Production Design

I’ll go with “The Grand Budapest Hotel” with this one. Another awesome world created by Wes Anderson.

Best Costume Design

“Grand Budapest” again for this one.

Best Makeup

Steve Carell’s transformation in “Foxcatcher” was pretty amazing, but I’ll go with “Grand Budapest” for this one as well.

Best Sound Editing

I’m going with “Birdman” for this one…

Best Sound Mixing

…and this one. “Birdman”.

Best Visual Effects

I’ve only seen “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “X-Men” in this category, but from the trailers, I think “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” could take this one.

Best Live-Action Short

I loved the Ireland film “Boogaloo and Graham” about two brothers and their chickens.

The Basics – The Life of Emile Zola (1937) – Director – William Dieterle; Paul Muni, Gale Sondergaard, Joseph Schildkraut; Run Time – 116 mins. – Biography, Drama – “The biopic of the famous French muckraking writer and his involvement in fighting the injustice of the Dreyfuss Affair.”

Prior Knowledge

Kristy – The only thing I know is that Emile Zola was a well-known French author and activist.

Koob – The only knowledge that I have of this movie was what I read on Wikipedia about Emile Zola; that he was a French writer and that he wrote “J’accuse” and was involved in the Dreyfus Affair

Fun Facts from IMDB

The film was shot in reverse order; Paul Muni grew his own beard for the role, and it was trimmed and darkened as he proceeded to scenes where Zola is younger. His makeup took 3-1/2 hours to apply each morning.

Studio boss Jack L. Warner, who was himself Jewish, personally ordered that the word “Jew” be removed from all dialogue in this movie, apparently in order not to offend the Nazi regime and hurt business for the film in Germany–this according to Ben Urwand in his controversial 2013 study, ‘The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact With Hitler’.

This was the first film to receive 10 Academy Award nominations.

Considered highly contentious in France, the film wasn’t granted a proper release in that country until 1952

Viewing Source – Amazon Instant Video ($2.99 rental)

Post Viewing Responses

Ratings (with 1 star = the worst and 5 stars = the best)

Koob: 2 stars

Kristy: 2 atars

Double Gobble Score: 2 stars

The Takeaway: A fairly standard biopic with some solid acting and an interesting history lesson.

Like this:

Many genres have been represented in the 85 years that The Academy Awards have been handing out Oscars, there are, however, some clear favorites in regard to the genres that tend to win.

According to collider.com , 89.2% of Oscar winners are Dramas and 41.0% are Romance (obviously these categories can overlap- as in the case of Dramatic Romance films). As far as Best Picture Winners, there are are no winners in the genre of Science Fiction and only a handful in Action, Fantasy, and Mystery.

Another interesting note, our next movie to be reviewed is the lowest rated Best Picture winner on IMDB. Be sure to check out our upcoming review of 1931’s Cimmaron!

Koob: I have actually already seen Wings probably around 12 or 13 years ago. I remember liking it well enough and as far as the plot, I remember the two main characters become pilots in WWI and wind up in France where one of them falls in love and the main female character played by Clara Bow becomes a nurse helping wounded soldiers. I don’t remember too many of the details or the ending so I am looking forward to a second viewing.

Kristy: My knowledge of this film is limited to it being about young men signing up for and flying out to war. By the cover image, I assume the following to be essential to the plot: a love story, fantastic makeup and looking forlornly off into the distance.